An early sketch for a Spring Girl I'm working on
I know, I’ve been quiet. The last 2 weeks have been challenging for me. They say business is business, but when it’s your business, it gets personal really quick. I know I need a thicker skin to run a business, but the reality is I’m a sensitive soul (don’t think I could be doing the kind of artwork I do without being one!) but it’s really hard to brush things off when people get picky, snippy or say things that crush my spirit. So, I shut my shops. That’s what I did (and that’s why I strictly stay with running an online shop, I can shut it down when I need to).
Actually, I need this week to not only take a breather, but finish taxes/inventory, catch up on administrative tasks, and meet deadlines on unique pieces, custom requests and wholesale orders. So I think I was getting a bit overwhelmed, getting to the point where I was feeling run down and unhappy with what I was working on and lots of changes and cranky sentiments were wearing me out.
This is why I rarely do custom orders, especially paintings. It’s soooo difficult to create someone else’s vision and I really take it to heart if they’re disappointed (or I drive myself crazy trying to make it just so). So while I’m always flattered when someone asks me, I almost always turn down commissions, less it be for a very close friend or family member and only if they let me have creative control of the piece. It’s just too stressful otherwise and if something is not up to their vision, I take it too personal even though I know I shouldn’t. But I guess that’s the upside of being my own boss, I can choose what I want to work on and what I don’t want to work on, even though I’m trying to still create healthy boundaries and the people pleaser in me is still learning to be comfortable with saying no to certain requests. It’s all a process and I know I’m not the only one who struggles with this!
Okay, enough yappy…here are some of the things I was able to work on this last Saturday.
This is a “body image” girl that I’m still working on; need to do some color balancing on her and some editing. Think most of us women could afford to be kinder to ourselves, especially when looking in the mirror, right?
Some custom collaged frames I was asked to make…these are actually pretty easy for me to take on because it doesn’t involve painting a girl!
A sneak peak of something I’m working on…really loving her, she’s so sweet!
I’m pretty excited, a big package of wood blocks arrived at my door today and those mounted prints I spoke of months ago I’m actually going to work on this week while my shops are closed and hope to have them listed when I reopen…sizes as small as 4×4 to as big as 11×14. It’ll be a way to own something that is ready-to-hang artwork, yet less expensive than an original own a piece of my artwork and still handmade by me.
So, that’s what I’m up to in a nutshell. Hope to have more material to write about this week, but don’t blame me if I keep quiet for a little longer…just trying to build my reserves. 
